Lady of Blades
by ChocolateAntelope
Summary: Complete. FE9 All the sword users can talk to Chapter 19's boss Homasa... Except Mia. She doesn't have any special boss dialogue with him. In fact, she doesn't speak to any boss in the whole game! Here's how her chat and fight with Homasa should have gone. Rated T for violence.
1. Chapter 1

Once Naesala left, the battle was a piece of cake. Mia dashed through the snow ahead of the others, leaving behind deep footprints. Through the howling wind, she could hear the others behind her, fighting off the last of the warriors and paladins.

"Mia, are you going to fight the enemy commander?" Ike shouted.

"Yeah," she turned and yelled back. "I'm going to weaken him until the rest of you catch up!"

"Be careful!" she heard Rhys call.

She nodded and turned back. A small figure in the distance-the enemy commander-stood still. As she grew closer, her eyes registered a thin ornate sword in the enemy's hand, expertly wielded. Could it be...?

No. He was swathed in a black kimono-like robe. How disappointing. As if to add insult to injury, the snow swirled around harder, making it _look_ white.

She herself was in a bright orange swordmistress dress. (She had made it very clear to the entire army that she had indeed mastered the sword, but was to be called a sword_mistress_, not sword_master_.) Mia's radiant dress combined with her sharp, violet hair made her hard to miss, even in the thickly-falling snow. She held a hefty iron blade in her hand with ease.

In one fluid motion, he whirled around and got a good look at the slowly advancing Mia.

He laughed.

"You got something to say to me?" She demanded, wielding her blade threateningly.

"Ha ha ha!" He chortled. "A woman approaches me? Cutting down one with little skill brings no glory... Yet it cannot be avoided on the battlefield. Shall I teach you something of the sword?"

Mia murderously glared at the swordsman. "Are you gonna be that way? You think you can beat me just 'cause I'm a woman, huh? Why don't you challenge me then?"

Her opponent looked genuinely surprised. "Me? Challenge you?" He laughed again and held up his silver sword for Mia to see. "I am Homasa. My sword is lightning. Can you follow its dance?"

"Male superiority," Mia muttered to herself and rolled her eyes, but of course Homasa didn't notice. Why was she wasting time exchanging names? She got into a battle stance and simply responded, "I am Mia, the graceful whirlwind of singing steel."

As she spoke, her opponent shifted into his own battle stance. "A long name, I see. Will you still cross me?"

He was stalling the duel, and she knew it. So she yelled at him, "The time for talk is over! Either fight me, or run away now. For your personal safety, I would recommend the second choice. Don't say I didn't warn you."

He smirked at her. "I will not back down to a woman. The shame of it would taint my honor for eternity."

"Yeah? Come at me!"

STORY SPLIT!

Ok, so I'm going to post two chapters up. One chapter will be more realistic. I am not good at writing battle scenes, and I myself have never, y'know, dueled someone with swords. But this one will be more, I don't know, fanfic-y. Ex. "Mia parried the blow, dropped down, and rolled to the side." (Because you know how you never see _that_ in the game, but it sounds more like something you might do in real life?)

The other will be more technical and turn-based, like it is in the game. Ex. "Mia had to stop and apply a vulnerary, but she didn't have time to attack Homasa as he dashed for her." (Because you know how using a vulnerary takes up one turn?) But I won't be that technical. I'm not going to write "Mia inflicted 21 damage on Homasa" or stuff like that.

I'm going on a last minute vacation soon and they will take a while to write, so don't hold your breath. I'll try to post both up on the same day.

Review, please!


	2. Technical and Turn-Based

Author's Note: Change of plans, I'm gonna upload this chapter first, and then write the other chapter.

Inexplicably, Mia was the first to attack. Homasa wasn't expecting it; he didn't think she was so gutsy, but he had obviously underestimated her.

She bolted up to him and with the swing of her arm, slashed across his torso. He could not evade it fast enough, and could feel himself weaken.

This did not deter him, though. Homasa raised him sword and swung it just as fast as Mia, but with a slight pivot, she dodged it easily. She was unharmed, but he was injured.

Both of them had been exhausted, and couldn't seem to do anything. Mia could only watch the rest of the Crimean army clash with the Daein army.

"All forces, move in! Tanith's reinforcements, take evasive actions and avoid the enemy! Greil Mercenaries, move up to the enemy commander!" Ike shouted above the din of fighting.

"I got the ballista dude!" Marcia called. She soared over to the cliff where the archer cowered behind the ballista. "Look at what you did to my pegasus!" Marcia yelled, and pointed at her pegasus. "Effective weapons won't help you now, cheater!"

"But, aren't you cheating by attacking me so close I can't fight back?" The archer replied, shaking.

Marcia's exasperated growl was drowned out by two laguz, shifting. Janaff reverted back to his human state just in time for Ulki to transform into an enormous hawk. He flew in the direction of the other ballista, but couldn't arrive on this turn.

Suddenly, it seemed that everyone in the Crimean army was exhausted. No one moved.

The Daein army, however, wasn't exhausted in the least. They began to run or ride up to their opponents. Most of the fights ended in favor of the Crimean army. They either fought back and killed their attackers, or dodged the assaults of steel and magic. Or both.

Homasa was indeed injured, but figured he was still in decent fighting shape. And besides, he wouldn't need to worry about being killed by this woman if he killed her first. He readied his sword and was about to charge when Mia had somehow attacked first. He was completely taken aback. He was going to go first, but she had beaten it to him. Again.

She brought her arm down, but she sliced only air. Homasa stepped back in time and evaded the attack.

"I see you have the unusual skill of always attacking first. Impressive," Homasa commented.

"Yeah, it sure gives me an ad_vantage_," Mia huffed.

"Unfortunately for you, I have a special skill as well."

Mia was able to avoid Homasa's attack, an uppercut. Then, suddenly, she doubled over in pain. She realized a split second later that Homasa had somehow managed to attack her again! Twice in a row! It surely explained the pain in her torso.

That shouldn't have been possible. Almost nobody, not even Commander Ike, possessed the speed she had, let alone anybody fast enough to double her. Surely Homasa couldn't double attack her. Yet somehow, he did. She'd seen Soren and Zihark do something like this on occasion though, and knew just what his skill was.

"Not bad," she breathed. "You're pretty adept."

She was a little worried for her health though. If Homasa did that again, and landed his strikes both times, she might not survive. Luckily, he was tired, and apparently, so were the rest of his troops. "Mist!" She called.

"Mia? Over here!" Mist's shout came from far behind. The cleric briefly waved to her, then went back to healing Makalov.

"I need you here!"

"All the way over there? I won't be able to get to where you are!" The harsh wind made Mist's voice undulated and distorted. "You'll have to move back too!"

Mia sighed and retreated back a few meters, but she knew she was safe from a tired Homasa. She waited.

A loud BOOM reverberated through the battlefield. A colossal lightning bolt streaked through the sky and pierced its target, the archer manning the ballista. Ulki squawked, expressing his surprise from the spell and frustration because he target had been destroyed by someone else.

Soren was standing several meters away, staring with grim satisfaction and muttering to himself, "Siege tomes. Rare and difficult to obtain, yet only fetch few gold on the market. Quite powerful and destructive-assuming they hit, that is; they have such abysmal accuracy. Exceptionally heavy, and contain very few uses. Really, only useful for gaining experience and weapon ranks." With that, he hefted the weighty Bolting tome and awkwardly staggered away.

Mia heard some huffing and puffing coming from behind, and whirled around to come face to face with Mist. The cleric tried to catch her breath and heal at the same time. It was a bit sloppy, but in the end Mia was healed, and that was all that mattered to her.

Mia knew Mist would be fine. She figured the high-and-mighty Homasa was probably too honorable to attack a healer girl.

To her left she saw Ike charging in, with Oscar right behind him. "Commander, do you need my help?" He asked.

"Sure Oscar, but it might not be necessary. Ever since I found this scroll, the enemy always seems provoked into suiciding on me." Ike held out the scroll. It was filled with myriad bright colors. Mia closed her eyes. She had never seen such offensive colors, like that burning pink or vivid orange. It flapped and waved in the wind, attracting attention from everyone nearby. The squad of paladins behind Homasa began pointing at Ike.

If Oscar wasn't already squinting, he certainly would have from the sight of the eye-damaging parchment. As it was, his eyes were smarting and watering from the sight of the annoying scroll. "Well, I see why the enemy keep trying to attack you, commander. I'm coming along with you-if only to provide moral support."

"Alright. Take out that enemy priest. I can't reach him."

"But... He has no staff."

Ike looked at the priest, and Mia followed his gaze. Indeed, the priest was literally empty-handed. Behind him was a familiar money-loving thief, who was currently strapping the mend staff to his back. Volke began making his way back to Ike. Oddly enough, the paladins didn't seem to notice him. It was like he disappeared in the shade of the cliffs. Ike's army stopped moving.

The Daein army recovered and advanced on them. Just as Ike predicted, all the paladins save one futilely tried to harm Ike, and paid for it with their lives.

Meanwhile, Homasa stared at his opponent, who was several meters away. Rather than moving up, he remained rooted on his spot.

He put away his sword.

Mia could only watch, bewildered. What was he doing? Had Homasa given up? Was he going to surrender peacefully? Was she too much for him?

No. He merely took out another sword, one Mia had failed to notice earlier. It was small and ancient and spoke of power.

He raised it up. The wind stopped blowing. Then, it redirected itself to Mia, blasting twice as hard as it had done before.

Mia may have been surprised, but she hadn't lost her wits. She twisted her body and stepped back, holding her sword up as if to block the blades of wind coming from all directions. She came out unscathed.

Unfortunately, by retreating back to get healed by Mist, she was too far away to strike back. It at least explained why Homasa attacked her at range.

The Daeins were done. It was time for Mia's turn.

She dashed up to Homasa and dealt a quick blow to Homasa. Or rather, she tried to. He just managed to dodge it. In retaliation, he struck back with the powerful sonic sword, but Mia nimbly hopped out of the way. Luckily for her, magic-based swords tended to be less accurate.

After this uneventful exchange, Mia was spent, and could do no more. She waited for Homasa's next move and prepared herself to attack first.

She was appalled to see that Homasa had erased her hard work. As he chugged down about a third of the elixir, his strength was restored, and he was healed from his injuries. He also switched from the sonic sword to his silver one again.

_At this rate, I'll never defeat Homasa!_ Mia thought. _Why haven't I scored a critical hit yet? I almost always do by this point, especially with my vantage! Guess I'll have to rely on my last resort._

Just as Homasa had done, Mia swapped her swords. She traded her iron blade for the rare brave sword. One glance at Homasa told her that he knew what it was, and he was very afraid.

_I'll also have to rid him of the elixir. Oh, I know!_

"Volke!" She shouted. The Crimeans could move again, and Volke didn't seem preoccupied with anything. "I need you here!"

Like a shadow, he swiftly and silently arrived by her side. "What do you need of me?"

"I need you to steal that guy's elixir." Mia pointed at Homasa.

Without another response Volke raced across the slippery snow and like a lethal predator, stalked up to his prey and snatched the elixir. Homasa didn't even notice. Volke returned to Mia with the elixir in his hand.

"That'll be fifty gold," Volke deadpanned.

"I don't have that on me."

"Then it looks like I'll be charging interest." Without another word, the mysterious thief pocketed the healing item and disappeared.

Mia breathed in and out. Now that Homasa had no means of healing anywhere, the fight would soon be over. For just a moment, it felt like she was cheating. But she reminded herself that this wasn't a fight between her and the Boss, this was real war. The thought fled her mind and disappeared forever.

"Only the masters of the sword can wield such a blade," Homasa said, eyeing her sword.

"Don't worry. You'll see just how skilled I am," Mia simply replied.

Mia ran through the snow and _slice slice_! The sword felt rather heavy and unbalanced, but luckily, both hits connected. Her opponent was quite weakened, but still alive and able to fight back. His sword gleamed as he countered with his own horizontal slice. That attack connected as well. The short duel was over for this turn.

Mia had gained experience from fighting Homasa. She learned a few things from dueling him that she had never known before. Now that she collected enough experience, she felt herself getting better, stronger, more durable. And best of all, she grew even more faster. Much faster than Homasa.

Out of nowhere, she felt herself getting mended from her injuries. She whirled around, but no one was behind her, healing her. Then, from a distance, she saw Rhys raising a blue physic staff. Its shimmering blue light rested on Mia, rejuvenating her. She nodded in thanks and turned back to her opponent.

_Homasa must not be feeling great right now_, Mia thought. And she was right. Homasa felt like he was defeated already, by some Crimean woman. He was at his lowest point right now. It would affect his fighting abilities, Mia knew.

On the other hand, she was feeling at her best. She was so close to proving Homasa wrong about his sexist ideals. Not to mention that she was dueling a somewhat skilled swordmaster. It was challenging, and she welcomed challenges.

It was time for the Daeins to strike. Mia glanced around the battlefield, and realized that Homasa was the only one left. He had failed as the commander, and it seemed that if he was going down, he would try to take out Mia, too.

Homasa was about to attack, but Mia was already on the move. "You underestimated me. Now, I'm so much faster than you that you won't even know what hit you."

She jumped a little and delivered two quick cuts across his body. Homasa tried to fight back, but his low biorhythm combined with his incompetence caused him to miss badly.

The wind seemed to swirl around Mia as she swung her sword up. Homasa dodged the uppercut like his life depended on it, which it did. But with one more blow, the duel was over.

With a final mighty slash, she slit open his throat.

His sword slid from his hands, and he sank to the ground. "I see...Graceful Whirlwind. My mistake...costed me my life," Homasa gurgled. Blood flowed from everywhere, his mouth, his throat, his entire body. "So...the whirlwind...defeats the lightning..."

Homasa was gone.

Mia felt no satisfaction. Yes, she had proven him wrong. Yes, she overcame her opponent and grew better. But, she found that she only felt regret and sympathy. If only they had been on the same side. If only if she could have gotten to know him better. Homasa really was a good opponent, she realized.

"It's true," Soren remarked out of nowhere. "In the weapon triangle, wind does best lightning, or rather, thunder."

"Not the time, Soren," Titania snapped.

Author's Note: Okay, yeah, I know, this chapter was choppy and didn't include much of the duel, but I wanted to include the other Greil Mercenaries. I was trying to make it technical and turn based. Also the reason I didn't include blood during the fight is because you never see blood in FE, right?

So how much did you catch? I included Ike and Oscar's support, Mia's skill Vantage, and biorhythm. There's other stuff too, of course. But if you've never played FE9, you probably didn't get very much of it.

Next chapter will focus way more on the duel and have more action in it. I don't know when I can update next, sorry.


	3. Realistic

The snowstorm raged harder against the two sword wielders. Mia focused not on the battle behind her, but solely on her opponent. Homasa stared at her with the same amount of concentration.

Suddenly, Mia was gone. Homasa merely stepped back and held his sword horizontally.

CLANG!

Mia was dismayed to find that Homasa had absorbed her strike with the flat of his blade. He didn't even appear to be fazed. Before Homasa could counter with an attack of his own Mia withdrew and readied herself in a defensive position.

Homasa laughed. "Is that the best you can do, woman?" She did not reply. Words were useless now.

He advanced fast on her. Mia held her sword tightly, ready to parry if need be. As his sword sliced down, she recognized the move and dove left, away from him.

His attack was a move she first saw-well, experienced-from Ike. Ike had slammed his sword down, and when Mia had tried to parry she found the force of the blow enough to rattle her. Ike had promptly twisted his sword and disarmed Mia, ending their spar. It was a move that frustrated her, both because it was such a tricky move to have to face and because she wasn't strong enough to try it herself.

The duel had hardly begun, but already Mia could tell the type of fighter Homasa was. He preferred blocking an attack rather than dodging, and he was more brute force than complex skill. In other words, very action-oriented. Unfortunately, Homasa had a good balance between adequate strength and superb speed. This was an annoying combination to have to fight against. Mia also remembered she couldn't give away any hints about her own fighting technique. Any advantage the enemy had meant a step closer to death.

She varied her pattern a bit, running back to Homasa. She raised her sword high, and as it descended Homasa prepared to block. No blow was forthcoming. Homasa looked at his opponent for a split second, confused, until he nearly collapsed with a cry. Mia safely hopped away, just in case. What she had done was pass her sword to her left hand and then swiped at his leg.

Homasa spat something dark into the snow. She did not need to look to confirm it was blood. Streaming down his leg in thin rivulets was blood as well. He glared at her.

He looked furious. She couldn't tell if this meant he was now an even more formidable foe or if he would lose all sense. He bolted to her, his sword already seeking her heart. Not even bothering to parry, Mia sidestepped, sloppily. The snow prevented her from being her usual graceful self. He successfully nicked her left arm.

It was just a flesh wound, but Mia cringed anyway. She didn't have the time to bother with it though. The fight was getting real now, more feral and deadly, the need to stay alive buzzing through the air.

He slashed downward. She blocked, forced to use both her aching arms to halt such a might attack. She cut downward. Her blade met his with another resounding CLANG! Both fighters trembled from the strength they were exerting. But neither one wanted to lose their ground.

Homasa clenched his sword with both his hands and flipped up. His sword overpowered hers as she stumbled back and fell to the ground, overcome by the sheer force. Her blade flew from her hands, embedding itself into the snow, far from her.

He rushed to her with all the energy he had been holding back. He struck downward where the woman was lying, a posture for those who die.

Mia pushed off the snow the best she could and rolled out of the way. His silver sword carved a jagged line into the snow. She was back on her feet in a flash.

Homasa missed the killing blow-curse her!-and whirled around to meet his sneaky opponent. He had sorely underestimated her. No matter. The duel had been won the moment her sword fell from her hand. Even now, he was more than slightly shocked to see her stand up and stare so defiantly at him, even without a weapon in hand. He could not allow her to acquire her sword.

Homasa was the only obstacle standing between Mia and her sword, she knew. She was beginning to tire out, the thrill and energy she gained at the start of the duel waning out. She took a breath and started running full out right to Homasa, glaring into his eyes all the while.

She was amused to see him actually shrink back, intimidated by her sudden rampage. Rather than tackling him down like he probably thought, she simply drew his spare sword, the sonic sword, from his scabbard and swung.

She had no idea magic swords were like this; she had never used one before. Rather than cut into her adversary's flesh like a normal sword, the blade set off a flurry of Wind blades that criss-crossed up his side.

Homasa went nearly mad when he felt the pain of the Wind and realized how he had been deceived by her, all at the same time. He slashed horizontally, hard, hoping to chop off her sorry head. He was alarmed to see that not only had he missed, his enemy was a long distance off, already within reach of her sword.

Mia stood next to her fallen sword, almost completely buried in the swooping snow. Before picking it up, she first decided to experiment with her newly obtained sword. She slashed in the air, and even at her distance, the Wind soared to where her sword pointed. To Homasa.

Wind was unruly, ready to escape back into the air. Even at range, her attacks often missed. Still, she kept slicing and slicing the air, calling Wind to her aid. When he started moving toward her, she sliced even faster.

Homasa kept hobbling toward the she-demon, doing his best to avoid the barrages of magic. Curse her, that was his magic sword _he_ received upon his last promotion! How dare she even lay hands on it! That despicable woman!

The sword was running out of juice, she could tell. The wind blades were weaker, more prone to missing. She decided to stay still and wait.

The woman finally ceased her attacks. He stopped moving as well, the sane part of his mind telling him that it was yet another trick.

They both waited with intense focus, much like when they first started. Then Mia swung the magic sword, scattering Wind about. Just as she hoped, it prompted him into approaching her again.

Like an inexperienced mercenary, Homasa ran to her, yelling and brandishing his sword. At the last second, she stepped away, pivoting on her foot. Inwardly, he smiled menacingly. He had a trick of his own. When he got closer, he raised his sword as if to attack. She held her sword out as if to defend herself. Then, her eyes widened in shock as he kicked up a puff of snow in her face. It hurt his pride to have acted like a mongrel just now, and to have to resort to such tricks, but it would hurt his pride even worse if he was defeated by her.

Mia was blinded by the snow in her sight. Retreating backwards, she quickly wiped it off her face, feeling chilled and vulnerable. Ike had once told her that no matter how honorable the enemy may seem, never expect them to fight fair, especially if they're losing. Observe carefully. If the opponent is very desperate, he will lose reason and wit. That's when you strike, he said. She couldn't tell if Homasa was that desperate yet.

Well, no time to think about that. Already predicting his next move, Mia ducked. The whoosh of the sword overhead could almost be felt. She stabbed at his ankles, but he jumped back from the bites of Wind, cleanly evading them. She only had time to stand upright before Homasa already began attacking.

He was fatigued, and so was she. But it was clear the winner of the duel would have to be the last one standing. He unleashed a series of forceful attacks, so fast that Mia had no hope save blocking every blow. She poured all her concentration into it.

Slice, slice, uppercut, slice, slice, cut. CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!

She matched his speed with hers, and as instincts took over, she found herself parrying each attack. She was better off just defending herself as of the moment; his sword was longer than hers, giving him the advantage anyway. Then, Homasa brought his sword down in a mighty cleave. Mia held her sword out to block it.

Rather than a CLANG, a sound like shattering glass reverberated throughout the battle field. The magic sword sundered beneath the silver sword. Shards of steel shot out. One caught Mia's cheek, a streak of blood forming soon after. She gasped.

Before she realized what she was doing she dropped the hilt of the sonic sword and crouched down in the snow, feeling for her sword. As her fingers detected freezing steel, she scooped up her blade and resumed a defensive stance.

Homasa's sword came crashing down, and she swung her blade to catch the attack. The swords crossed, resembling the shape of an _X_. The fighters were locked in place, their feet rooted to the ground.

Mia thought fast. She twisted to the side, her blade sliding out of the parry, and her foot reached up and connected with Homasa's nose.

Homasa first thought he had overcome the woman again when he felt her blade slipping off of his. He was still pushing with all his strength, so when her blade was gone he found himself stabbing his sword past the snow and into the hard ground. Then, something black blurred his vision and he heard something crunch. A half second later, he felt his nose being crushed. He yelled.

Without thinking he pushed the woman away from him. She was sent sprawling into the ground. His sword still stuck in the ground. He tried to wrench it out, but found it frozen into the ground. His own strength did this to him.

"Game over," he heard his opponent say. Slowly, he turned around and saw the end of a sword at his throat. The fight was over.

All his energy seemed to leave him at that moment. The pain in his side and leg was suddenly too much, and he crumpled in the snow. Unrelenting, the woman stepped closer, the tip of her sword still on his neck.

"I win. You lose. Told you not to underestimate women," she continued.

"The shame," he mumbled to himself. Then louder, he addressed her. "You fight well... For a woman... and a swordmistress."

She huffed and puffed, trying to catch her breath after such a taxing duel. "You fought well, too. Thank you." She withdrew her sword and sheathed it. "There's no point in killing you. Go. Run."

"I... Cannot." Homasa looked beaten.

Mia sighed in exasperation. "Men and their pride... Look, you're a really good swordmaster, and actually, I would love to learn from you," she said.

"No. Please, swordmistress, you must end this duel." His voice was weaker, as if he was already dying. "No, I must ask you something."

"What?"

"Why do you fight?"

Mia blinked. "Oh. Easy. I've been told too many times that a weapon does not belong in the hands of a woman. I've got something to show the world, and I have to keep working and learning and training until I'm good enough to gain their respect."

"I see. Swordmistress... No, aspiring Lady of Blades. You have won my respect. My final hope is that I have taught something to a worthy fighter like you." Homasa stared right into her eyes.

"You sound like you've given up! Come, join us! Just because I've defeated you doesn't mean you have to die."

"No. Do it. Finish me. It is truly my last wish."

"I... Okay. If you really want me to. Do you?"

"I do."

With tears welling up in her eyes, Mia stood up. With one last stroke, the duel was over.

Author's note: So, I hope that wasn't too bad! Like I said, I'm still trying to figure out how to write battle scenes, and I hope this was okay and not cliché or boring. And I'm aware, some of the moves/tricks Mia and Homasa did never would have happened in a true fight. but just let me experiment, okay? Awesome-sauce.


End file.
